Make your own afternoon snacks: homemade energy bars

Since the very first bite, your children will love their taste and crunchy texture.

Feb 13, 2019

If you are running out of ideas for your children’s afternoon snacks, you have two choices: discover Nutribén’s Potitos product line or look for new alternatives that are as healthy as they are nutritious. To help your imagination, today we will tell you about homemade energy bars. Since the very first bite, your children will love their taste and crunchy texture, and you can rest easy knowing that you are giving them a healthy and nutritious treat.

Why have homemade energy bars as a snack?

Energy bars have a high content of carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, which implies an essential energy boost for growth, and also helps suppress hunger and decrease exhaustion, which is particularly good for them when facing their daily after-school activities in the afternoon. An all of this without any significant calorie intake.

In addition, given the simplicity of its recipe you can do it yourself, which will give you the chance to make them with the ingredients they like the most, and they can even help you cook them, which can become a fun family activity.

How are homemade energy bars made?

So that you can find out for yourself how easy it is to prepare homemade energy bars, write down its ingredients and steps.

Usually an energy bar contains:

Dried fruit.

Cereals.

Dehydrated fruit.

And binding ingredients: honey, yoghurt or milk with chocolate melted in a double boiler.

Keeping in mind the dietary groups that you should include in the recipe, you have total freedom to choose which ingredients to use when making your energy bars.

Once you know the ingredients, start by mixing finely diced dried fruit, the cereals and the fruit in a bowl.

Next, pour the binding ingredient, whether honey, yoghurt or chocolate, while continuously stirring the mix. In this way, you will make sure that all ingredients get drenched.

Once the ingredients are well bound, it is time to put them in a mould and take them to the oven, which should be hot by now.

Any type of mould will do – whether disposable or made of aluminium foil or metal. Do remember that for the latter you will need to cover them with parchment paper before pouring the mix so that it does not stick.

Since the very first bite, your children will love their taste and crunchy texture.

You will need to bake the energy bars at 150-170 degrees centigrade for 20-25 minutes, and once this time has passed, let it cool down, put it in the fridge and enjoy it whenever you like.

Homemade energy bar recipes

Easy, right? If this is the first time you ever make energy bars, write down the following recipe. It’s very simple and its ingredients are especially tailored to children’s palates.

Banana and oatmeal bars

Ingredients

180 g of banana

65 g of oatmeal

40 g of figs

20 g of nuts

Preparation

Mash the bananas and mix them with the oatmeal in a bowl. Add the figs and the nuts, finely diced.

Add the mix into a rectangular mould with parchment paper on the base. Bake at 180ºC for 10 minutes. Let it rest for at least a couple of hours.

Cereal bars with chocolate chips

Ingredients

200 gr. of oat flakes

50 gr. of puffed rice

175 gr. of sugar

75 gr. of butter or margarine

80 gr. of honey

100 gr. of chocolate chips

Melt the butter in a pot and then add the honey and sugar until you get a caramel.

Then, add the cereals and puffed rice and mix well until a homogeneous and sticky dough forms.

Meanwhile, spread butter or margarine on a rectangular mould and pour the mix on it, spreading it well so that it is distributed homogeneously.

Now pour the chocolate chips, distributing them over the surface and lightly press down with a spatula until they are well stuck.

Lastly, let it cool down and cut the bars to your preferred size using a knife.